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The Art of Natural Leadership

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Leading Naturally

Part of the book series: Management for Professionals ((MANAGPROF))

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Abstract

Professionalism can be considered the overlying quality of contributions made to a community. Its basic principles were well defined long before we differentiated between work and wages. This brings us to the seven core tasks of leadership, as defined by the evolutionary process. Let’s dig a little deeper into the phenomena.

There is a way to win the people; win their hearts and you will win the people. There is a way to win their hearts; amass what they want for them; do not impose what they dislike on them. That is all.

Mencius, Weiser

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Probably 15,000 years ago.

  2. 2.

    Even today you can still witness participants performing the art of “letting your competition appear stupid” in every assessment centre, without losing approval from the group. Quite often, this person goes on to win the top prize!

  3. 3.

    Research shows that the individual’s evaluation of uncertainty contributes to the willingness of submitting to a leader, such as the call for a “strong hand”. I am convinced that this only applies if the leader himself is not perceived to be the cause of discomfort. There are indications that our ancestors were not very friendly in dealing with failed leaders.

  4. 4.

    A relentlessly unhappy promise would be contained in the message: “I will bring you success!” The leader’s promise should always follow the logic: “If all of us implement my model of success collectively, we will all succeed!”

  5. 5.

    I suppose this is probably one of the reasons why this 2nd key task of leadership tends to be such a challenge for many managers.

  6. 6.

    Löhner (2005).

  7. 7.

    There is so much written about these aspect that, here, I can confidently refer to such publications.

  8. 8.

    I use the term “images in the mind” to illustrate the constructed reality of an individual, by which he filters, thinks and acts.

  9. 9.

    The term frustration stems from the Latin word frustratio and describes deception and disappointment.

  10. 10.

    Hopefully, this disrespect—used only to dramatically emphasise the effect—would have been generously excused.

  11. 11.

    The term awareness indicates that even the intuition of the experienced and faint patterns of information must be taken into consideration.

  12. 12.

    Ostrom et al. (2002).

  13. 13.

    Herzog (1988).

  14. 14.

    Unfortunately, he argues rather consistently in his unique, entertaining and cynical style, assuming that everyone who joins in a collective activity to accomplish a greater whole is merely compensating his own “weak ego”. I can definitely not share this perspective: Maybe it simply needs a strong sense of self to recognise and accept the own limitations. To get together for larger goals certainly does not have to be a sign of weakness. Rather, it is the core of our existence. Worthwhile to do your best!

  15. 15.

    Communities split up, if they do not prove capable of overcoming a difficult phase—or they merge into other communities (personal conversation with Prof. Gerd-Christian Weniger, Director Neanderthal Museum).

  16. 16.

    “panem et circenses” (bread and circuses).

  17. 17.

    Sennett (1998).

  18. 18.

    Aristotle is famous for his statement that political state is natural for human beings. What he means is we do not come together in communities with our own advantages in mind, but we do so, because that is our nature. In addition, he subscribes an organic character to society, as opposed to the mechanical one in later economic theory.

  19. 19.

    In ancient times, our ancestors would have spoken of “black and white magic” in this context. And they knew that both would respectively change people in different ways.

  20. 20.

    Berth, a former Kienbaum consultant, sets out to measure leadership success and to identify possible causes, in spite of the immense principle difficulties (income, 1993 Dusseldorf: Econ). For four years, he searched for the indicators of business success and came to the conclusion that extremely successful companies can be characterised to a great extent by having complementary management. In respect of one’s own shortcomings, the vicinity to others was looked for. From our perspective, this explanation fits perfectly to primal group: Teaming up to complete a collective task is a good idea if you are not capable of doing it on your own. This requires an element of trust in each other: the second most important factor in Berth’s study.

  21. 21.

    Metaphor for something that can only be “hunted”, i.e. achieved, together with others.

  22. 22.

    An experience recounted by a manager who is personally known to me.

  23. 23.

    Damit beschreiben sie zwei sehr unterschiedliche Arten von Leistungsmotivation.

  24. 24.

    The past experience and recommendations, however, from today’s management practitioners, to declare all recruitment decisions of key positions to be a matter for the boss himself, is, in my opinion, primarily tactical. Of course, a leader will influence the loyalty of his environment this way and thereby secure his scope of influence.

  25. 25.

    Data analysed from the CST management profiling database.

  26. 26.

    My thanks go to Roland Keppler (currently CEO, Europcar International, Paris) for encouraging the discussion and reflection on this topic. He is a member of the inner circle of the Open-Source: Management—Initiative. An interview with him can be found in the appendix.

  27. 27.

    Sedlacek (2012).

  28. 28.

    For many years, we have been analysing the individual disposition of leaders, as part of the CST Management Profiling (see Part III: personality and leadership), to find out for which key tasks they seem to have a natural preference.

  29. 29.

    Blickle et al. (2011).

  30. 30.

    Sedlacek (2012).

  31. 31.

    Nye (2011, p. 74, 229).

  32. 32.

    Nye (2011, p. 14, 305, 317).

  33. 33.

    Drennig (2008).

  34. 34.

    Nye (2011, p. 35).

  35. 35.

    Ridley (2011, p. 123).

  36. 36.

    Sennet (2012).

  37. 37.

    Mintzberg (2010).

  38. 38.

    During the last couple of years, we have been working on an evolutionary psychological approach to customer orientation. The first practical experiences we have had with this have been truly remarkable!

  39. 39.

    Mintzberg (2010).

  40. 40.

    Ridley (2011, p. 381, 385).

  41. 41.

    If not, have a look at the impressively researched work from Steven Pinker (2011).

  42. 42.

    Steingart (2011).

  43. 43.

    Entertaining in connection with this topic: Klingner (2012).

  44. 44.

    FC Bayern München.

  45. 45.

    Germany: BMW, Siemens, DaimlerChrysler, Porsche, Audi, Bosch; global: Google, Apple.

  46. 46.

    Is considered the world’s first truly great work of literature, written over 4,000 years ago.

  47. 47.

    The speciality of this sports club lies in overcoming the obstacles—especially in team sports—of the Germany sports club structure. Sportpaß offers its members the opportunity to play (team)sports without any pressure.

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  1. Change Support Team, Bonn, Germany

    Michael Alznauer

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Alznauer, M. (2016). The Art of Natural Leadership. In: Leading Naturally. Management for Professionals. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45111-3_5

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